Fall 2019—Fighting The Lie: The Trump Administration And Reducing Illegal Immigration

In my capacity as a high school social science teacher, I was recently given an assignment by my school to teach a class about “contemporary issues.” When I asked the school secretary about what the curriculum for the class would or should look like, she literally told me to just teach about whatever I wanted. As a free market capitalist, I couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the curricular freedom granted to me! However, as a part-time school teacher only in his second year of officially controlling his own coursework, it was a little intimidating to be assigned to teach a class without any prepared curriculum from the higher-ups at my site and district.

Ultimately, I decided to simply teach my students about current events that are making the news week by week. A while back, I decided to teach my students about the protest movement currently gripping the city of Hong Kong. In explaining the situation to my students, one of the kids in the class asked me about why protests in Hong Kong are such a big deal worthy of international news analysis. The obvious implication behind the student’s question was that protests happen all the time in all sorts of different countries all over the world; what’s the big deal about protests happening in Hong Kong? I responded to the student’s question by explaining that protests in Hong Kong—especially protests that include literally millions of participants who end up violently clashing with police forces—are a rather unusual occurrence in a city like Hong Kong with a historic record for peace, order, and a law-abiding citizenry. As part of this explanation, I told my students that if such protests had happened “in a country like, say, Mexico,” very few people in the international press would’ve cared nearly as much because, after all, people have come to expect “countries like Mexico to be a mess.” Countries like Mexico have been messes for a very, very long time.

As a California school teacher with a number of Hispanic students in the classroom, I knew that by making such comments about Mexico that I was potentially playing with fire, but I guess I just didn’t care enough to stop myself from using what I thought was a very useful comparison. I was expecting some of my Hispanic students to get offended and to express their disapproval of my comments. I was very surprised when my most outspoken Hispanic student instead got a faraway look in her face when I talked about Mexico as a perpetual mess. This girl looked off into the distance and said of her family’s native land, “It’s getting so bad down there…” With her commentary, I felt my description of Mexico as a perpetual mess had been accepted as valid by at least some of the Hispanic students in the room…students who would know more than most about the subject on a personal basis.

Whenever people who oppose us conservatives on the issue of illegal immigration posit that right-wingers like myself are nothing more than Hispanic-hating racists, I get really frustrated. The argument over illegal immigration is about so much more to me than racism or racially-charged politics; indeed, such factors do not and should not enter into anyone’s mind if they truly wish to see mass illegal immigration into our country through the southern border as the debilitating problem that it is.

In the fall of 2014, I wrote a blog post in which I argued that illegal immigration is a pressing issue because it presents some very real challenges to the American nation, and that these challenges deserve appropriate solutions that respect the rule of law and the dignity of human beings all while promoting the values associated with civic virtue and good citizenship. I argued this not because I hold racist viewpoints of peoples native to the lands south of the U.S. border with Mexico, but because I see a very clear and dangerous connection between illegal immigration and organized crime. The criminal drug cartels and human trafficking rings that now control much of underworld society in the border regions are both a significant national security threat to the United States of America and its citizens, but also to the dignity and safety of the illegal immigrants themselves who are usually (but definitely not always) guilty of nothing more than sneaking into the United States without lawful permission.

In 2016, Donald Trump shocked me by winning the presidential election against Hillary Clinton. Part of my shock came from the stunning realization I experienced that I wasn’t as alone and isolated as I originally thought in terms of my grave concern over the illegal immigration issue. Long before the 2016 presidential election, I had become convinced that illegal immigration had become a truly losing issue for the political right. I had been thoroughly intimidated by what I thought was our country’s overarching culture of tolerance, permissiveness, and even encouragement of illegal immigration as a practice that would be increasingly legitimized by the thought leaders and political classes alike. I never thought that a raging rogue politician like Donald Trump could ever survive in today’s current political climate while still holding onto a tough stance on immigration. After getting over the shock of being incredibly wrong about Donald Trump’s survivability—and illegal immigration as a winning right-wing issue—I slowly awoke to the pleasant reality that there might just be a few more willing and listening ears for my message than originally assumed.

In 2018, I wrote a winter blog post about our country’s relationship with Mexico, immigration from Central and South America as a general phenomenon, and Trump’s accusatory rhetoric concerning the illegal immigrants themselves. I wrote this blog post back when I don’t think I was, as yet, truly conscious of my complete transformation into a Trump supporter. I did not vote for Trump in 2016 (a decision which I have come to mildly regret), and yet, in my 2018 winter blog post, I wrote that many Americans hold the traditional viewpoint that immigration is a privilege and not a right, that illegal immigration represents a serious breach of law and order. Furthermore, many Americans who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election worry that illegal immigration—and the efforts of big businesses, major political parties, and government bureaucracies to subsidize public services for illegal immigrants and to protect them from federal law enforcement agencies—constitutes a serious threat to the concept of civic virtue, leaving the value of citizenship cheapened and demeaned. I also wrote that millions of U.S. voters who find President Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric to be appealing have pointed to a wide array of evidence that suggests a strong link between illegal immigration and increasing crime rates and terroristic activities along the U.S.-Mexican border. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have reported that their illicit border crossings were facilitated by human traffickers who eventually sold them into slavery inside the United States. Illegal immigration has been accompanied by a general rise in crime along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the crime wave itself has resulted in an escalation of terroristic violence that is a growing concern for many U.S. citizens. The rising tide of crime and terrorism on the southern border has only validated President Trump’s continued calls for a border wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.

When I wrote my blog post in 2018, I was then far from convinced that a border wall of any kind would be useful in preventing illegal immigration. I also had serious doubts about Trump’s ability to maintain a good relationship with Mexico. I am happy to say that since 2016, I have changed a vast majority of my opinions about Donald Trump as a political leader worth supporting. I am also happy to report that since 2018, my opinions about the usefulness of a border wall as well as President Trump’s ability to craft a more constructive relationship (perhaps “ad hoc partnership” is a better way of understanding it) between the United States and Mexico have also changed as well. Now, in 2019, I am thoroughly convinced that President Trump is exactly what this country needs to at least start tackling the very real national security threat and breakdown of law and order that illegal immigration represents for our country.

It’s not very hard to see that Mexico by itself alone demonstrates the kind of dangerous lawlessness that will start creeping north across the border if U.S. politicians do not continue getting serious about illegal immigration enforcement and border security in general. Just like the Hispanic students in my contemporary issues class, I suspect you could ask many Mexicans today if their country is moving closer to failed state status and expect a response in the affirmative. As reported by John Daniel Davidson in early October of this year, “in the city of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, a battle erupted between government forces and drug cartel gunmen after the Mexican military captured two sons of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. The elder son, Ivan, was quickly freed by his men, who overpowered government forces and secured his release. Ivan then launched an all-out siege of the entire city in an effort to free his younger brother, Ovidio.” I remember watching news reports about this on early-morning TV, and I distinctly remember the inherent embarrassment of hearing that the narcos ultimately came off triumphant in that particular standoff with the Mexican government.

Is it any wonder, then, when people like me say that on the issue of illegal immigration, Donald Trump has an incredibly potent advantage at his disposal in the upcoming presidential election of 2020? I have not heard the American left offering up any substantive or practicable solutions to the growing violence and instability that is ever-encroaching on our southern border communities and states, and I most certainly have not heard of any of the major Democratic candidates for president expressing a willingness to tackle the issue head-on like our current president clearly is.

For years now, I have expressed my own opposition to illegal immigration primarily because it represents a breakdown of law and order that every functioning republic relies upon for the maintenance of a civil society wherein the rights, privileges, and virtues of citizenship are respected and venerated. Even simple infractions against the laws involving illegal immigration can result in a more lawless and violent society here in the United States of America, and many of our politicians, especially those on the left, are making it easier for these infractions to become endemic. For example, back in the fall of 2017, one of America’s most violent cities watched as its leftist mayor did what he could to make it more difficult for federal authorities to apprehend and deport illegal immigrants.

Because of his political disagreements with the Trump administration, the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, announced that he planned on suing the Department of Justice over its President Trump-directed refusal to play ball with Chicago’s antics as a sanctuary city that protects illegal immigrants from federal law enforcement. Prior to Mayor Emanuel’s announcement, the U.S. attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had made it very clear that sanctuary cities would no longer be receiving discretionary federal funds unless those cities repented and chose to start cooperating with federal immigration laws. According to Attorney General Sessions, cities like Chicago “make all of us less safe because they intentionally undermine our laws and protect illegal aliens who have committed crimes.” Sanctuary cities “encourage illegal immigration and even human trafficking by perpetuating the lie that in certain cities, illegal aliens can live outside the law.”

Many government studies and reports through the years have made it abundantly clear that illegal immigrants are often more likely to commit crimes once they are in the United States because, put straightforwardly, they become accustomed to criminal activity the moment they successfully sneak into our country. Politicians like Mayor Emanuel unfortunately have a vested interest in protecting this criminal element due to the strong ethnic and demographic political rewards to be gained for the Democratic Party by engaging in such special interest activism. Tragically, many of the illegal immigrants who are consistently protected by the American left also end up committing violent crimes that victimize American citizens. Individuals, families, and communities all over the United States have suffered needlessly for years because leftist politicians controlling sanctuary cities and states have come out in open rebellion against the Trump’s administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.

But try pointing out this suffering to a leader in the Democratic Party today, or to a socially “woke” justice warrior on a typical American college campus, and you will most likely be accused of racism, hatred, or worse.

If you think this suffering is nothing more than an abstraction that people like me dispassionately type about in blog posts like this, I would direct your attention to the sad, sad story of a policeman named Ronil Singh, a cop who worked right here in Stanislaus County where I live. The memory of this story is still very, very fresh in my mind.

The following passages come from a news story published by Fox News in January of this year:

“The illegal immigrant accused of gunning down a California police officer last month appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday. Gustavo Perez Arriaga, who prosecutors said was charged with murder in the death of Cpl. Ronil Singh of the Newman Police Department, did not enter a plea during the hearing. Arriaga's attorney, Stephen Foley, told the judge they believe the suspect's real name is Paulo Mendoza. The suspect’s attorney questioned his client’s competency to stand trial, after which the judge suspended proceedings and ordered a doctor's evaluation. The parties are due back in court next month.

“Arriaga did not speak during the court proceedings and was given assistance throughout by an interpreter. No one in the courtroom, which was filled with members of the Newman Police Department as well as relatives of the defendant and the police officer, seemed to offer any reaction. Arriaga was taken into custody on Friday, days after Singh was killed. The suspect, who is from Mexico, was in the country illegally after previously crossing the Arizona border, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson revealed following Arriaga's apprehension. The suspect had sought to cross back over the border before the shooting unfolded, Christianson said, adding that Arriaga had known gang affiliations and two prior DUI arrests. Singh was shot and killed during a traffic stop just before 1 a.m. last Wednesday in Newman, about 100 miles southeast of San Francisco, according to police. The suspect was stopped by the officer for a DUI investigation before engaging in a gunfight, during which Singh tried to defend himself, Christianson said.

“Following Arriaga's arrest, U.S. immigration officials confirmed that they had no contact with him until his arrest. Singh was a native of Fiji and left behind a wife and 5-month-old son. The officer, who joined the force in the summer of 2011, legally emigrated to the U.S. to pursue his goal to become a police officer, Newman Police Chief Randy Richardson reflected during an exclusive interview Sunday on Fox & Friends. ‘That's what actually made him stand out, the day I did the interview with him, is his devotion for this profession,’ Richardson said. ‘He told me he came here solely to be a police officer and be a part of this country, to protect what was given and allowed to him.’”

This is the true story of an American policeman shot and killed by an illegal immigrant right here in Stanislaus County less than a year ago. This is a real story of my community being made to suffer by California politicians who have refused to aid and assist the federal government in enforcing laws that have been on the books for years, laws that might have actually saved Officer Singh’s life if only immigration laws had been followed and Paulo Mendoza had been imprisoned or deported.

These are the kinds of stories that are happening all around us legal American citizens year in and year out, and these are the stories that have helped propel Donald Trump to the presidency. President Trump, even with all his glaring imperfections as a human being and as a politician, is offering something to the American people that hasn’t been offered to them for several generations: actual substantive leadership in the fight against illegal immigration, a phenomenon that is literally killing our people, destabilizing families and communities, and endangering the dignity and safety of some of the most vulnerable among us.

As of this summer, President Trump’s push for Mexico’s government to start helping with the problem of illegal immigration along our country’s southern border seems to be leading to actual and positive results. There have been plenty of signs in recent months that the Mexicans are beginning to step up their own immigration enforcement, and it seems that fewer and fewer illegal immigrants from countries south of Mexico are actually making it to the U.S. border. I am perfectly willing to accept that all of this is a result of President Trump’s prudent use of threats of tariffs to force Mexico to start toughening its stance. Among other things, the Mexicans have pledged to deploy more troops along their own border with Guatemala, a massive source of illegal immigrants. The Mexicans have also started allowing more asylum-seeking refugees to actually settle in Mexico instead of sending them on to the United States. And although their attempts have met with mixed results, the Mexicans have at least implied that they are willing to do more about human trafficking and drug cartel operations that threaten the border security situation with the United States.

As for the Trump Administration’s own domestic efforts to curb illegal immigration, all I can say is that I am thrilled to finally have elements of the federal government wholeheartedly invested in making a difference for the better. I enthusiastically approve of President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which pushes alleged asylum-seekers to await court proceedings in Mexico rather than in the United States, where they often just disappear into the general population and are never heard from again…until, perhaps, they commit a violent crime. Up until now, I’ve been told that approximately 90% of applications for asylum into the United States are denied. But because pretty much anyone can show up at the U.S. border claiming to be an asylum-seeker, many of these people simply fade away into American society despite the inevitable impending denial of their applications. Very few politicians outside of the Trump Administration and its band of supporters wish to admit it, but these so-called asylum-seekers are one of the primary reasons border and immigration enforcement agencies often engage in pointless “catch-and-release” programs when dealing with lawbreakers.

Prior to the Trump Administration actually trying to do something about it, the system has been pathetically corrupted and broken. Now, according to reports, the United States is returning more and more of these people to Mexico in a far more orderly and law-abiding fashion that also avoids overwhelming the American judicial system and law enforcement agencies. In a report written by Charles Lehman earlier this year in August, we have been told that “nearly 12,000 people were returned to Mexico in July, compared with about 5,000 in May, and just 15 at the start of the year.” Progress is progress, and the “Remain in Mexico” program seems to be doing a great job of not only returning illegal immigrants to Mexico, but also deterring would-be crossers of the southern border by signaling to them that they will have no legal standing to covertly remain in the United States after being apprehended. The “Remain in Mexico” program also rejuvenates the motivations of border enforcement officials who now have substantive reasons to actually catch illegal immigrants who are now more likely to be deported.

Policies to reduce illegal immigration work, and I sincerely hope that the Trump Administration won’t back down now that it’s initiated such successful programs thus far in its term in power. As for a second term in power, I still maintain that Donald Trump and the restorative direction he’s taking our country in is exactly what we need as a nation if we wish to honor and sustain the law-abiding spirit that Abraham Lincoln once referred to as the desired “political religion” of our people. I sincerely hope that people like me who refrained from voting for Donald Trump in 2016 will join me casting our ballots for him—and Republican candidates in general—in 2020. Trump and the Republicans are not saviors, and they are far from perfect, despite what Trump may bombastically suggest in his typical campaign rally speeches (those speeches sure are entertaining, though). However, they represent the best political chance our country has right now of maintaining a few more steps in the right direction, and in the realm of short-term politics, that’s often all anyone can ask for.

--Christopher Peterson, November 29^th, 2019